blessed beyond measure

It is no secret that Trey is an active child. He is even active in activities that normally wouldn't be considered active. Such as coloring. Unless there is only one sheet of paper available, Trey is not satisfied with coloring a single picture. If we have a coloring book, he starts at the beginning, colors a little on that page, then turns the page and so on. Maximum of 10 seconds per page. I was looking for educational, sit-still things to get Trey for Christmas, and came across this book on Amazon.com. It is a wipe-clean book with a dry erase marker. The pages wipe off with a rag, paper towel, or tissue. Trey loves this book. I mean, loves it . It is perfect for how he likes to color. He gets such a kick out of flipping pages, scribbling a little, then "Keen dis!" (clean this) . He will sit still and play with this thing for at least half an hour. He can't yet use the book for its original purpose - learning to write letters and numbers, trace animal shap...

Trey has invented some very creative, albeit quite odd, games for himself lately. We keep the pieces from some more advanced-age puzzles in a basket. Trey takes handfuls and distributes them to various people and stuffed animals. He makes judgments over who deserves which puzzle pieces - often I've noticed him giving Templeton the Turtle a stack of pieces, only to go back, snatch up the pieces, and yell, "NO!! You don't get that!" In the kitchen, Trey will take the lids from my storage containers and throw them one by one at the microwave. Not sure exactly what this is about because he offers no commentary. Since his introduction to the ever-popular glue stick, Trey has thought it very funny to glue things to the bottom of his feet and walk around. This is not unsupervised play, of course - I admit to letting him do it. It's funny and, eh, the floor is already dirty. Never a dull moment.

Trey is all about the chores lately. Or rather, my chores. Here is some of what he likes to help me with. Grocery shopping. My job is to get the item off the shelf. Trey's job is to put the item in the cart. Forbid that it's something heavy or breakable. He gets very offended if I go around him. Also, once we get to the checkout, he gets quite the kick out of putting things on the moving belt. It's entertaining. When we get home from grocery shopping, Trey insists on helping me put the groceries away. Before we even get through the door, he is shouting, "Gotta help Mama!" He is wiggling and shaking his arms in a feverish attempt to get free of his coat. One item at a time, he goes first for what he is familiar with (apple juice, jello, etc.), and then starts guessing. Many times the guesses aren't bad - tube of toothpaste in the bathroom sink, pack of toilet paper on top of the toilet. Another area Trey enjoys helping with is the laundry. He has l...

We have been held captive for the last two months. The coldest temperatures and largest amount of snow this area has seen in decades combined with Trey's three upper respiratory infections have given us all a case of cabin fever. But today, Trey is healthy. And today, the weather is beautiful and balmy. And today, we stepped outside, breathed in deeply, and soaked up a little God-given vitamin D. It was miraculous.

I am a bit ashamed over my money-saving behavior for the last several months. Fellow couponers, you may want to skip this next part. Last week I threw away multiple dozens of expired coupons (oh, the diapers!) and over $25 in expired ECBs. No grocery freebies have entered our home since September. In fact, most of what I have purchased has been (gasp!) full-price. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It has sort of been survival mode around here lately, what with morning sickness, swine flu, basketball games, sleep deprivation, sinus infections, ear infections, upper respiratory infections... The last thing I have wanted to think about is money. When the morning sickness was at its worst, I couldn't care less. If I happened to glance at my coupon organizer, I would scowl at it and go lay down. Too mentally draining. Plus, to have to think about food - or worse, to have to look at food in a Kroger ad - was just revolting. As the morning sickness has subsided, I guess I'v...

This is the amount of time that my uber-active child will stand still, immovable, unshakeable, transfixed, and my parental vigilance gets a moment off. For this is the amount of time it takes our oven to preheat. From wherever he is in the house, Trey is never out of earshot of the oven's initial beeps, as I press bake, then the temperature, then start. When that comes, he drops whatever he is doing and tears through the house shouting, "Gotta watch the beep! Gotta watch the beep!" And rest assured he will stand in front of the oven, still as a Buckingham Palace guard, to watch the entire countdown. Sometimes he counts along and sometimes he seems to be in a daze. At least until the countdown goes under a minute. Then we get the commentary. "Almost time!" "We'll hear the beep in juuuuust a minute!" "Here it comes!!" When the oven finally beeps, Trey spends about 5 seconds being overjoyed, then usually goes back to what he was doi...

Well, we're still here. That was a very unintentional blogging hiatus. As everyone else in the blogosphere has been posting photos and stories of holiday merriment, the three of us have been wallowing in sickness. Bleh. It started with Brandon, who seemingly caught his bug while walking to his car on the last day of school. He stayed sick for over a week, and now may be addicted to liquid Tylenol. Which, by the way, might as well be pure alcohol. Could explain why he likes it so much. Then came Trey, who had pretty much sustained a croupy cough for over six weeks. Enter four days of fever and a lot of mucus. We actually took him to the doctor on Christmas Eve, where they did a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia. No pneumonia, thank the Lord, but a bad upper respiratory infection aggravated by Trey's asthma. Rather than putting him on medication, we were told to give him breathing treatments four times each day, which helped so much. Fever eventually went away, as did the cough ...